Shackles loosed
By Owen Kilpatrick
October 13, 2026
When we ended the school year, we had 40-50 young people coming to the youth center frequently. Crazy numbers for a team of two people and such a blessing for the mission! We decided that this summer we would try to invest in deepening relationships with young people who we knew, but wanted to draw deeper into a relationship with Christ. We planned trips to the movies (some of our teens had never been before!), unsuccessful fishing trips, and, of course, ice cream.
The summer culminated with a trip to LifeTeen Camp Hidden Lake in Dahlonega, Georgia. The young people we brought were able to experience a week in the north Georgia mountains, time on the river, zip lines, messy games, rock walls and ropes courses and more importantly, prayer, the sacraments, and the movement of the Holy Spirit.
One young person in particular had a moving encounter. He is a teen I had been working with since I started mission two years ago and for two years I had been preparing him to be baptized, but every time he reached a decision point he would get cold feet and couldn’t go through with it—including this most recent Easter. Even through the summer, likely embarrassed by his decision not to go through with things, as well as the reality of his difficult living situation, it became more and more difficult to get a hold of him. It reached a point where we planned not to invite him to summer camp in hopes that he’d come around the next year and we could use his spot for someone else. As our invitations started falling through, however, and spots stayed unfilled, it became clearer and clearer that the Lord was inviting us to revisit our decision. I was able to meet with him in the weeks leading up to camp and he shared with me all of the things he had been going through: cut off electricity, his mom struggling with bills, a peer being murdered. It became so obvious to Anthony and I that camp would be a much needed retreat for him to encounter the Love and Power of God. We made the invitation and he accepted. He was going to join us.
Having been his second time going to Hidden Lake, he came in with plenty of confidence and anticipation for what he was going to experience. While he didn’t love absolutely everything (the messy games were a “no”), he entered into the week by listening to the talks, opening up in our small groups, and keeping a good and goofy attitude throughout the day. We could tell he was encountering something.
His camp experience came to a head on the night of Eucharistic adoration. I sat next to him and watched as he looked at the monstrance and wrestled with God. I could tell he was holding back something from the Lord and felt moved to lean over and encourage him. I leaned over and told him what someone had once told me: “God loves your tears.” I noticed him let himself go into the arms of His creator and we sat and watched our Eucharistic Lord.
After adoration, he and another one of our students approached the chaplain of the week (an amazingly gifted priest) and asked him for prayers. While I didn’t hear all that the priest said, its effect was obvious. Both boys came pouring out of the room, tears in their eyes, crashing into my arms. A weight had been lifted. Shackles had been loosed.
The rest of the week went on as normal. He remained cheerful, enjoyed the remaining activities, and got grumpy (as all of us did) due to lack of sleep. Though I couldn’t see it right away, the Lord was stirring something in his heart. As we went to leave I was asking him about his time at camp and he mentioned wanting baptism again. While I wanted to be excited there was still a part of me that hesitated. I had heard this before, gotten my hopes up, and been disappointed. However, as we got back from camp and I kept posing the question and talked about it with another young person who was received into the Church at Easter, it seemed obvious that something was different this time. There was a confidence, an earnest enthusiasm that hadn’t been there before. As I write this we are making plans to meet with the priest and make a plan for baptism. God only knows what the outcome will be, but I have a hunch this one will stick.
While outings or trips to camp with young people can seem simple they expose our teens to a simple truth that many of us can overlook: God wants us to be free. When the young people are able to get away from their environment, do things they otherwise never would, and share life with people they typically wouldn't, they get a small taste of that heavenly freedom. Their horizon gets a little wider and the world as they know it gets a little more full. It is in the simple context of relationship, of time spent enjoying each other's company that God begins to loosen the bonds of sin and make a way for His Gospel to take root.
